Building a Climate of Righteousness: Religious Television Networks in American Culture by Kayti Lausch A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Film, Television, and Media) in the University of Michigan 2020 Doctoral Committee: Professor Yeidy Rivero, Chair Associate Professor Stephen Berrey Associate Professor Daniel Herbert Professor Victoria E. Johnson, University of California, Irvine Kayti Lausch
[email protected] ORCID iD: 0000-0001-7176-9069 © Kayti Lausch 2020 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I have so many people I want to thank, and I truthfully have spent many nights anxiously drafting these acknowledgements in my head when I couldn’t sleep. Now that it is finally time to write them, however, I find myself overwhelmed by the support I’ve received during my time as a graduate student, and incredibly grateful to have been able to work alongside so many truly wonderful colleagues, friends, and mentors. The journey through the dissertation writing process has been much more fun than it had any right to be, and I have you all to thank for that. I would like to begin by thanking my dissertation committee. Thank you to Yeidy Rivero for your generous mentorship, and for believing in me and this project for the last seven years, and for always rearranging the paragraphs in my introductions. I am very lucky to be your advisee. I would like to thank Dan Herbert for his support through several seminars of me working out what this project was going to be, and for his enthusiasm for hallway and lounge chats.